She was known as Bhajanwali Meera or Adhunik Meera. She started singing at the age of seven and recorded her first Hindi bhajan when she was 12 years old. Her first album was recorded under the guidance of Kazi Nazrul Islam. She did playback for Hindi and Bengali movies. She was synonymous with the all-time favourite song, “Ami bhorer juthika”, a memorable composition by Kamal Dasgupta. Popular Bengali music has withstood many changes, yet the song has retained its appeal for her inimitable gayaki and presentation. She is Padmashree Juthika Roy, the legendary singer.

Hosted by Musical Fingers, Concert for Juthika Roy featured eminent artists from different genres in the presence of this veteran artist herself at Rabindra Sadan on December 18. Spearheaded by Shanoli Basu Roy, the programme began with Nazrulgeeti by Susmita Goswami, followed by a recital by Srikanta Acharya. He commenced his performance with the Tagore songs, “Tomae gaan shonabo” and “Tumi sandhyar meghomala”, and ended with “Tomake na nie jeno ase na sakal”, by Jatileswar Mukhopadhyay. With the keyboard as the sole musical accompaniment, Acharya rendered all the songs with his usual flair, though the absence of the desired accompaniment was felt. Mandira Lahiri sang “Bhagwan tumhare charano me”, a beautiful composition by Pandit V. Balsara. However, loud accompaniments marred the impact of the lyrics and drowned the emotion in Lahiri’s voice. Indrani Sen chose three popular songs of Juthika Roy, written by Kazi Nazrul Islam, with the music composed by Kamal Dasgupta. “Mone pore aj se kon jan” and “Swapne dekhi ekti natun ghar” were enjoyable and brought back the ambience of those golden days. Keeping in mind the evening’s oozing nostalgia, all the artists of the evening were careful in their selections and emotional in their presentations. This combination was heartening and praiseworthy.

Bijoylakshmi Barman gave emphasis to rhythm while selecting Bimal Chandra Ghosh’s “Ujjal ek jhank paera” or Tagore’s “Janmantar”. With her clear diction, she recited with ease. She ended with “Sur sohagi”, a poem by Shankha Ghosh. An audio-visual presentation showed old, rare pictures of Juthika Roy along with her song, “Ami bhorer juthika”. She has left her glorious days behind but the aura still captivates and one could feel her passion and dedication when she expressed whatever she wanted to say through Tagore’s line, “Ganer bhitor die jakhon dekhi bhubankhani”. The most remarkable aspect of the entire programme were the nostalgic anecdotes of Debasish Basu, the programme’s compère, and also the audio-visual presentation. Shanoli Basu Roy should be thanked for her enormous effort in presenting this wonderful evening.

To commemorate the death centenary of the father of Bengali stage, Girish Chandra Ghosh, Academy Theatre, a pioneer in preserving and presenting the manchagaan or theatre song, produced Girish Parampara at the Academy of Fine Arts on December 6. Riddhi Bandyopadhyay and Debjit Bandyopadhyay rendered various songs from Girish Ghosh’s theatre while Dipankar De read out significant numbers. “Kuswapan dekhechhi Giri” from Agamani and “Ulu noe radandhwani” from Balidan deserve special mention. The artists were accompanied by Debasish Saha, Dipankar Acharya, Riddhadeb Bandyopadhyay. The stage was designed by Khaled Chowdhury and the lighting was done by Soumendu Roy.